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What Profits an Off Broadway Show?

For three years “Altar Boyz,” the little musical about a Christian boy band, playing at New World Stages, has been a classic example of commercial Off Broadway’s struggles.

If a show with a cultlike following, stellar reviews, a not insurmountable $1 million capitalization cost — and after some adjustments, a $50,000 weekly running cost — couldn’t turn a profit, then what could?

Well, right around New Year’s Day, about three years into its run and somewhat propelled by the business driven Off Broadway by the Broadway stagehands’ strike, “Altar Boyz” finally recouped its initial investment, said its producers, Ken Davenport and Robyn Goodman.

Photo

The cast of Altar Boyz; three years into its run, this musical is operating in the black.Credit
Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

Off Broadway shows do not report grosses publicly, and the League of Off Broadway Theaters and Producers does not compile information on recoupments. But if there are musicals that made their money back in commercial runs Off Broadway in the last decade or so, there aren’t many. “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change” did, and so did “Hedwig and the Angry Inch.” Each, however, opened more than 10 years ago.

Increasingly, the producing model of the Off Broadway musical has shifted toward a hybrid of commercial producers and nonprofit theaters. Under this system critical hits that were nurtured on nonprofit stages, like “Grey Gardens” and “Avenue Q,” move to Broadway for their commercial runs.

But where that leaves commercial Off Broadway is less clear. Mr. Davenport has two other shows there — “The Awesome ’80s Prom” and “My First Time” — which he says have recouped their investments. “Prom,” an interactive show like “Tony ’n’ Tina’s Wedding,” recouped a year after it opened in 2005. “My First Time,” a series of monologues that opened in August, made its money back within several months, partly because it has been playing on a truncated schedule of two or three performances a week and cost a mere $175,000 to put up.

But for a book musical like “Altar Boyz,” Mr. Davenport and Ms. Goodman had to be creative. Advertising was curtailed, and certain duties, like casting and some marketing, were performed out of Mr. Davenport’s production office instead of farmed out to specialists. The producers worked out a favorable rent arrangement with New World Stages that allowed the show to stay up and running despite its rather intense peaks and valleys.

“I think if people work as hard as we did on keeping this show going in terms of conservative spending and innovative marketing, people can keep their shows running,” Ms. Goodman said. “The problem is holding strong while you find your audience.”